


Mind’s Eye

by RebKa (RkB)



Category: Batman - All Media Types, Nightwing (Comics)
Genre: Angst and Hurt/Comfort, Dick Grayson Needs a Hug, Dick Grayson Whump, Dick Grayson is Nightwing, Dick Grayson-centric, Gen, Jason Todd Swears, Post-Traumatic Stress Disorder - PTSD, Protective Jason Todd
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2020-12-21
Updated: 2020-12-21
Packaged: 2021-03-10 23:00:09
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 1
Words: 5,330
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/28215093
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/RkB/pseuds/RebKa
Summary: Dick experiences intrusive thoughts at an inconvenient time.Jason is angry and lashes out, but what doesn’t he know about his Golden Boy brother’s past?A whumpy tale.
Relationships: Batfamily Members & Dick Grayson, Dick Grayson & Jason Todd
Comments: 21
Kudos: 407





	Mind’s Eye

**Author's Note:**

> I’m really starting to get into this writing thing! This is my second little story, so my apologies if I’m way off the mark here!
> 
> I’m not a big comic buff. I’m more into interpersonal relationships and whumpy works! I like exploring the heavy burdens that heroes carry. I’m sorry if the bad language is a bit much, I find it easier to write Jason using bad language! 
> 
> I hope you enjoy!!
> 
> Please comment! I would love to hear from you! -xo

“Red Hood, Nightwing, enter via the south side on the sixth floor and get to the hostages in the northeast corner, they should all be there,”

Batman’s orderly growl commanded over the comms. 

“10-4, B”, Nightwing replied shortly as Red Hood crouched down beside him. 

“Robin and I will engage on the ground level. Most staff and occupants have managed to evacuate already. Red Robin and Batgirl- do a sweep of floors 2 through 5 to check for stray hostages or hostiles. Oracle, keep an eye on the outer cameras and advise of any company approaching. Everyone stand by and engage on my word.”

All teams radioed in their acknowledgement and waited for the signal to go from Batman. 

Turns out they were on the verge of busting up what looked to be a huge child trafficking ring that was being established via the Gotham Youth Juvenile Detention Centre. 

The boss of this particular crime syndicate had started working on a way to abduct troubled children at the facility who had no caring or involved parents or guardians. Turns out those kids were being kept locked away on the top floor as hostages. Which happened to be the sixth floor. 

Now that the heat was on, and the Bats had began dismantling the thugs’ peripheral operations over the past several days, most of the criminal group had broken up and abandoned their boss, but there were still a handful of devotees to the scheme who felt that taking the children hostage would be a good idea in a last ditch effort to try and get some ransom money, or at least try to use the kids as bargaining chips for criminal immunity.

Dick had resisted the urge to laugh when he considered the well deserved ass kicking that these scumbags would have coming their way. 

Dick felt his heart flutter with more than just the usual adrenaline rush he typically felt before a big bust. The Youth Detention Centre was definitely not his favourite place. He would have been happy to never step foot in this God forsaken place again. 

He remembering the few weeks he spent there as a newly orphaned young child as being some of the worst days of his life.

He turned to Jason in order to distract himself,

“Hey Hood... what’s Batman’s favourite kind of tea?”

“Wha’ the fuck.. ? I don’t give a shit... Earl Gray?” 

“Nope! _Vigilan-tea!!!_ ” Dick cackled.

A series of audible groans sounded in Dick’s earpiece. His family members clearly not appreciating the sheer genius of his pun. 

**“All teams engage!”**

Dick sprang into action, jumping off the neighbouring rooftop position he and Jason were perched on. Nightwing shot off his grapple gun after a couple seconds of savouring his graceful free fall. 

Nightwing flipped from his grapple line onto the fire escape outside of their targeted location. Red Hood landed much more simply beside Dick about a half second later. 

“You and your fuckin’ drama show,” Red Hood commented at Nightwing’s display of acrobatics,

“You love it, Hood” 

“Yeah, save it for Masterpiece Theatre, Nightwang,”

Nightwing and Red Hood entered the centre through the fire escape and began their pursuit of recovering the young hostages.

The smell of the building hit Dick immediately causing his stomach to churn. 

_‘Hey circus boy! G**** freak! C’mon let’s get ‘im!’_

The voices of dozens of delinquent kids swam around in Dick’s ears. Likely triggered by the familiar smell of the building, 

“how the fuck does this place still smell like this?” Dick stated in a low voice,

Red Hood whirled around and shushed Nightwing. 

Dick pushed down the feeling of nausea and shook his head to re-focus himself on the task at hand.

The two heroes cleared the abandoned rooms they passed on the way, thankfully most of the building’s occupants were able to flee before getting trapped by the thugs. 

Nightwing felt his pulse quicken as he recognized the corridor leading to the quarters where the hostages were being held. They spotted two burly goons with guns outside of the doors of the room in which the children were locked.

 _‘No, it can’t be...’,_ his brain sputtered. His body thankfully acted appropriately to the situation from years of practice. 

He and Jason swiftly engaged the goons and managed to disarm and knock them out. Red Hood zip tied the two as Nightwing entered the sleeping quarters to check on the young hostages.

Nightwing entered and knew instantly. 

This was one of the same rooms where he spent the few horrible weeks after his parents’ death. Memories bombarded him. Memories of being cornered by larger boys, not understanding what they were saying to him since his English wasn’t good at the time. 

He recalls not knowing what they wanted from him, or what he could have done wrong as they beat him, and heard himself crying out for them to stop and for help in Romani,

_‘Te rog opreștete! Ajuta-ma! Ajuta!’_

“WING! A little help!!” Red Hood abruptly shoved him and Nightwing turned to the kids to find them staring up at him in nervous awe. 

“It’s alright kids, you’re safe now,” he managed this pitiful attempt at comfort through the invasion of memories. 

In fact, he did not register Red Robin’s voice over the comms relaying, 

“Hood! Wing! Heads up, one stray goon headed to your position, he got away from us! He’s got a gun!”

No sooner had Red Robin finished his warning, the henchman burst through the entrance of the room. The henchman trained his gun onto a brown haired boy closest to Nightwing. 

“Wing!” Jason yelled at Dick to handle the man as Dick was in range to easily disarm the thug using his Escrima sticks. 

Nightwing just stood there stupefied, his eyes behind his mask’s lenses locked on to a spot on the far wall, where a tiny robin had been etched into the plaster by his 8 year old self. 

He remembered carving the robin there during his last week at the detention centre. He had been terrified and feeling too much pain physically and emotionally to sleep. 

Back to the present, a large body pummelled into Nightwing and he slammed heavily to the floor. A little body fell on top of him and cried out in pain. Multiple shrill screams rang out through the room.

The next sound that registered was the deafening bang of a gunshot and Red Hood’s angry, pained shout.

Red Hood swore and lunged at the gunman, managing to knock the gun away and then knocked the assailant out swiftly with a heavy fist to the face. 

Nightwing tried to clear the brain fog and looked over to find Jason kneeled next to the child he had roughly pushed out of the way along with Nightwing during the fray. 

Jason had his hand clutched to his own bloody thigh and used his other hand to brush the young boy’s hair out of his eyes. The kid was a little shaken up and had bumped his head slightly so he would need to be looked over by an EMT, but seemed to be okay otherwise.

Red Robin and Batgirl rushed in to assist, having secured everyone they were tasked to handle. 

Tim and Cass took over the task of gathering the kids and moved to usher them out to safety. 

Tim turned his head over his shoulder and quickly asked a bleeding Jason, “you ok, Hood? Need me to call for help?”

“Nah, my leg’s hit, just a deep graze. I’ll be fine...no thanks to fuckface over here,” 

Jason had sneered out those last words angrily and glared over at Nightwing with disdain. The glare still palpable through the red helmet. 

Nightwing blinked and stood up slowly. He tried to approach Red Hood with a roll of gauze in order to apply a makeshift bandage to the wound until it could be stitched up. 

Jason snatched the roll of gauze roughly and slapped Dick’s hands away in anger,

“Get the fuck outta my sight. Go be useful somewhere else.”

Dick took a shaky breath as he turned and left. Moving to meet up with Batman and the others on the ground floor. 

Nightwing helped Batman and Robin shuffle the tied up criminals to the outside of the building to be picked up by the GCPD. 

Red Hood radioed in that he was headed back to the cave. Batman and Robin departed in the Batmobile as well.

Once all of the children were in the protective hands of the police, Nightwing, Red Robin and Batgirl moved to head back to the cave as well.

Cass put her hand on Dick’s shoulder and asked, “you okay?”

Nightwing noticed her and Tim looking at him with concerned expressions on their faces. Trying to sound as convincing as he could Dick answered,

“who me? Yeah, I’m fine. I’ll meet you guys back at the cave.”

With that he hopped on to his bike and sped off.

———///——-

Dick stopped on the side of the lonely road while en route to the manor in order to empty the contents of his stomach.

There wasn’t much in there to empty but his trauma pulled whatever vile stomach acid it could find, up and out of Dick’s body. 

Dick collapsed onto his hands and knees in the mud and spit the rest of the acrid bile out of his mouth. He wiped off his face with the back of his forearm. 

Sitting back against his bike the hero buried his head into his knees and let out a muffled scream of anguish. 

He thought of how incapacitated he felt at such old memories. How angry and disappointed he was with himself for not helping Jason and worse, those poor kids who had no loving families.

He gathered himself up finally after he couldn’t throw up or scream out into the black night any longer. 

How he managed to complete the drive to the cave without crashing on the way there, he couldn’t say.

——-///——-

As Dick entered the cave he noticed that everyone was already there, including Cass and Tim who had unsurprisingly beat him back.

Dick joined the group in front of the Batcomputer. Thankfully the group did not include Jason. 

Dick glanced over to the far side of the cave and could see Red Hood in the med bay with Alfred getting his wound cleaned and stitched up. 

Dick tried to pay attention to the various mission reports from Bruce and his other siblings, but found himself not paying much attention. 

Bruce, still in his Batsuit with his cowl pulled down, looked at a too pale and sickly looking Dick and asked,

“Nightwing, debrief please on behalf of yourself and Red Hood. What happened?”

Dick just shook his head and replied,

“B, I - can I just go take a shower first.. please?”

Bruce shoved aside his instinct to insist that Dick tell him exactly what happened this evening, and also stuffed his urge to ask Dick why his eyes were so red, 

“Sure Dick. Go on and get cleaned up. We’ll talk after.”

Dick moved to head to the locker room when he found himself face-to-chest with the mountain of a man who was his slightly younger brother. 

Jason, having been stitched up and having had a chance to stew in his anger a little longer, lunged out of the medbay (or rather, hobbled as quickly as he could on his injured leg) in time to confront Dick when he saw him move away from the group. 

“ _Dickface._ Care to tell me what the fuck happened out there?”

Dick just kept his head down and tried to avoid Jason’s rage. He didn’t want to cause a scene and arouse the suspicions of his family any further.

Too late. Everyone, including Alfred was staring at Jason and Dick. 

Nobody made a move to interject out of their own curiosity.

“HEY! Fuckface! I’m talking to you!” 

“Jason, please move, I don’t want to talk right now.”

“Well too bad Goldie, because I am talking to your sorry ass for fuck’s sake. You owe me a goddamn, fucking explanation!”

Dick couldn’t seem to find the words to say and just looked up at Jason to see a tint of green glowing in his eyes. Although, Dick didn’t need that hint to understand that Jason was furious with him.

“You shit the bed out there Dickie!!! What?! Did you fucking hurt yourself telling shitty jokes outside? Or did you pull an ass muscle when you were doing your useless, fancy clown boy flips?” 

Jason poked his finger down into Dick’s chest roughly shoving him back and carried on,

“You could have gotten me killed or yourself killed. You just fucking stood there... useless. Now what the fuck do you have to say for yourself?!!”

Dick opened and closed his mouth, as he still couldn’t muster up an explanation. How the hell was he supposed to explain that he froze in terror at the smell and sight of a place he lived at briefly as an 8 year old? 

How could Dick ever admit to being so crippled by such weakness at such a crucial moment? 

Dick had already let Jason down, he couldn’t tell him the truth and have everybody else thinking he was so incompetent and screwed up too. 

He looked over at Bruce pleadingly and even saw young Damian looking at him quizzically. 

This look angered an already irate Jason,

“Hey Dickwing!!! I’m taking to you... Bruce and the others can’t make excuses for you! I want to hear it from your fucking lips, asshole!”

Dick tried to get his brain cells to form some kind of coherent sentence, but all he managed was a barely audible, 

“....I’m sorry....”

Jason pulled his arm back and slammed his fist into Dick’s face as hard as he could at Dick’s non-explanation. Dick collapsed to the floor like a sack of potatoes from the brute force of the punch.

“Jason! Enough!” 

Bruce rushed over and stood between him and Dick in order to prevent any further violence. Bruce put his hand on Jason’s heaving chest,

“Jason go and cool down. Hit the showers.”

Before leaving, Jason looked past Bruce and down at Dick who had his head down, his black hair flopped over his eyes. He was wiping the blood from under his bloodied nose with the back of his hand, 

“Y’know the worst part of all of this, Dickhead, is that you could have gotten those kids killed. That’s unforgivable. You shouldn’t be wearing that fucking fancy outfit or call yourself a hero when you can’t do the damn job. You’re a pathetic piece of shit,”

With those acidic words, Jason huffed and moved away to take a shower.

Bruce peered over at his other children and Alfred. Every one of them was just staring in stunned silence and confusion at the scene.

He looked back towards Dick and crouched down beside him,

“Dick, chum...” Bruce started gently, 

“No, B. He-he’s right. That building, the room.. everything...felt so real... I couldn’t ....I ... I just froze.... “

Dick stood and swayed a little seeing stars. The effects of the hard blow to the face plus the vomiting from earlier were starting to add up. Bruce put a steadying hand on the shoulder of his eldest son,

“Chum, I’m sorry. I didn’t even realize that it still had such an impact. I should have known,”

“It shouldn’t have been that bad, B. I should’ve been stronger...w-what’s wrong with me?”

“Dick, it will be ok. We’ll talk about this later, chum. For now, go use the shower in your room upstairs, Alfred will bring you some some ice and some painkillers for your face. Best that you give Jason some space right now. Can you get upstairs by yourself?”

Dick nodded and made his way upstairs alone.

——-///——-

Jason was soon joined in the showers by Tim and Damian who both glared at him. For not being biological brothers, they certainly gave Jason identical looking dagger-eyes.

Of course they would be pissed at Jason for hitting the most beloved member of the family. 

Jason grew agitated at the wordless glares from his younger brothers,

“what?! You guys want a knuckle sandwich too? Keep your beady eyes in yer dumb heads,”

“You hit Grayson.” Damian stated plainly. 

“You would have been pissed at him too, Demon! He was playing around, and then choked when it came time to get down to business.” 

Tim piped up,

“When have you ever known Dick to act like that during a mission before?”

Jason thought and just shrugged when he couldn’t think of any examples, 

“Exactly, Jason. So maybe something else is going on. Maybe he’s sick or injured. You shouldn’t have punched him.”

“Don’t fuckin’ lecture me, Replacement. The fool had a job to do and shouldn’t be there if he couldn’t do it,”

“Tt... maybe he did not know anything was the matter, Todd. Grayson always behaves like an imbecile to protect us. He has taken hits for all of us before, why not this time? We should ask father about this,”

“Hmm, yeah, the Demon has a point. I did hear Dick say something vague about that building and room to Bruce before he went upstairs.” Tim agreed.

Jason slapped his open palm against the wall hard, still frustrated and agitated by everything and everyone around him. He turned off the shower head he was standing under and stormed off to get into clean clothes.

——-///——-

Dick turned off the shower in his bathroom and wrapped himself in the clean, and fluffy towel.

He wiped the foggy mirror and was taken aback by the sight of his face.

He reached up and hissed in pain at the swollen flesh on his cheek which was a bright red colour. 

Dick winced thinking that this one looked similar to the one Bruce had given him years ago when he had kicked Dick out, and knew that in a couple of days the bruise would be completely black and blue. 

Dick also looked at his nose which had gotten clipped by the punch, the bleeding had stopped but it looked swollen as well. 

_‘Thank goodness Jay and I are usually on the same side,’,_ Dick thought. 

He certainly did not envy the villains on the other end of Jason’s powerful hands. 

Dick got dressed slowly and sat on the edge of his bed in his room. 

He could hear the chatter of his family downstairs and wondered if Jason would speak to him again. 

Dick noticed the small silver tray that Alfred had left neatly on Dick’s side table. Alfred, the saint, had left a couple of pills and a glass of water, plus a single use gel ice pack on the tray for Dick’s face. 

Dick ultimately decided that he should have to feel every ounce of this pain, especially since he had caused Jason’s pain and suffering. He left the medicine and ice pack untouched, turned off the bright room lights, flipped on his plug-in Superman nightlight and curled up beneath his bed covers.

He pulled Zitka, his stuffed elephant, tightly into his arms and finally (after holding back all night) let a couple of tears roll down his cheeks and into the soft fabric of his comforting childhood toy.

——-///——-

Jason hobbled in the manor’s long hallway towards the kitchen, every step and tug on his stitches a dull reminder of the wound he sustained because of Dick’s incompetence.

“Hey Alf! Got any tea ready?” 

Jason called out as he neared the room. As he entered he discovered his family (minus Dick), gathered around the kitchen table.

Jason scrubbed his hand down his face roughly. Irritation tugged at the edges of his thinly layered patience,

“Ughh, what the fuck is this? A _‘let’s tell Jason he’s a big asshole for hitting the perfect, golden ray of sunshine’_ intervention?”

“Language, Master Jason,” Alfred tutted as he handed Jason a piping hot cup of tea. 

“Jaylad, why don’t you take a seat? Timmy, Cass and Damian just asked me what might have happened with Dick and we were just going to have a talk about it,”

“I know what happened. Dickie was acting a fool, not taking anything seriously and nearly got us killed. If you’re trying to make excuses for him, I’m fucking outta here,”

“Master Jason. As well you know, this behaviour is not characteristic of Master Dick. Master Bruce only wishes to explain what he thinks may have happened. Please stay and listen. You will have lost nothing by listening.”

At that statement, Jason took a seat. He rolled his eyes to keep up appearances, but he knew that he could never argue with Alfred’s logical wisdom. 

“Thank you, Jason,” Bruce acknowledged his second eldest son. He sighed deeply and began,

“I know you are all aware that I took Dick in as my ward following the death of his parents at the circus. What I don’t think any of you know is that it wasn’t a smooth process to get that to happen. 

I was a single young man, and even though I had money, the authorities including Child Protective Services, did not trust me in order to place Dick immediately in my care,”

Tim, Damian and Cass were leaned forward fully absorbed in every word that left Bruce’s lips,

“Well, at that time especially, Gotham didn’t have the same large orphanage and as structured a foster system as we do now. The Wayne Foundation contributions and subsequent creation of new facilities only took place in more recent years, after I saw what happened with Dick,”

Ok. Now Jason’s interest was piqued as well. Bruce carried on,

“Well, as I was saying, I wasn’t allowed to take in Dick right away. I had to jump through so many hoops by attending court hearings and countless appointments with my lawyers to get the proper permissions and paperwork in place. This took several weeks. 

In the meantime, there was no proper place to put Dick. There were no available foster families to place Dick with, and the only existing orphanage was full. 

Even so, they still wouldn’t let me take him in. Instead, CPS allowed him, a severely traumatized young child who saw his parents... his only family...fall to their deaths in front of him...”

Bruce paused as his voice shook at the anger and sadness of that memory. Alfred placed a hand on Bruce’s shoulder and finished,

“Master Bruce means that they took Master Dick and placed him in the Gotham City Juvenile Detention Centre,”

Damian bristled with anger, while Tim and Cass looked shocked,

“You mean, that facility had been Richard’s home?” Damian asked through gritted teeth. 

Jason stared incredulously. He knew Gotham was the pits, but how seriously fucked was this city that they could do that to an innocent, grief-stricken child? 

Bruce patted Alfred’s hand on his shoulder gratefully and re-gained his composure,

“Yes, for a time Damian. That was where Dick was forced to live. I wish I could say that just being placed at that centre was the worst of it, but Dick had a really horrific time while at the detention centre. 

He was the youngest child there. Most of the other youth were there due to legitimate violent crimes they had committed. 

Now, as I think you already know, Dick was part of Haly’s Circus and the company travelled worldwide. He was not a native English speaker and at the time his parents died he only knew very limited and basic English. 

His young age, lack of English, and the fact that he was so emotionally broken made him the perfect target for the groups of older kids who wanted a vulnerable victim to prey on.”

Jason could feel himself growing angrier and could feel himself trembling slightly. He noticed Bruce was also trying to conceal his emotions. They all sat in reflective silence for a moment until the young voice of Damian asked softly,

“Father, what did the delinquents do to Grayson?”

“I don’t know every single detail Damian, but from what I’ve been able to piece together from the reports written by staff at the time and from what bits Dick has told me is that they beat him physically every few days. 

He would get moved around to different sections of the building to try and protect him, but he would be discovered by the others or picked on by a new group entirely. 

I was finally able to threaten the Detention Centre and CPS with severe legal action when I discovered what had been going on. 

They relented and finally let me take Dick in, but his last beating there was particularly brutal. He was beaten unconscious, covered head to toe in cuts and bruises and his arm had been broken. He had nightmares for months afterwards,”

Alfred finished, “so, as you can all well comprehend, Master Dick would still not be fond of that building.”

Jason felt the green effects of the pit threatening to bubble up. 

“How the fuck are we just learning about this now?! Fucking fuck!! Dick should never have been allowed to step into that hell hole again after that!”

Jason looked at Bruce with an accusatory glare, and Bruce put his head down into his hands, 

“Jason, I’m sorry. I didn’t realize it was still so traumatizing for Dick. But I should have. I don’t think he or I recognized that it would be so hard to separate the past from the present. Even with the suit and mask on.”

“Hmmph, world’s greatest detective my ass!” Jason exclaimed.

“Todd. You hit Richard.” Damian stated bluntly, bringing up the elephant in the room as he so often does. 

“Todd, you must apologize.”

“I agree with the Demon”, Tim chimed in, “you know how guilty Dick will be feeling. He needs to hear you say that you don’t blame him,”

“But it is his fault!! He should have told me...he should have....and I could have....”. 

Jason sputtered and stopped, 

“Fuck. _I’m_ the asshole” Jason buried his face in his hands.

“Master Jason, you are not entirely to blame. But, you can help make it right. Master Dick is still up in his room, I believe.”

——-///——-

Jason stood outside his older brother’s door. He took a deep breath and tapped lightly.

No response.

Jason considered taking the coward’s way out by simply walking away, but knew he wouldn’t be able to think about anything else if he didn’t deal with this first.

Jason tapped the door again as he opened the door a crack.

“Dickie?” 

No response. 

Jason decided against being an even bigger asshole and didn’t flip on the light switch to brighten the room.

Thankfully Dick’s Superman nightlight illuminated the room enough to where Jason could see his brother’s form lying under the blankets in bed. 

Jason thought about the nightlight as he manoeuvred his way across Dick’s room. Now, It made so much more sense to Jason that his older brother was afraid of sleeping in pitch black rooms. 

He cringed at himself when he thought of how many times he had teased Dick for being afraid of sleeping in the dark. Dick had always just laughed it off, but never shared his pain. 

Pushing those thoughts aside he moved towards Dick’s sleeping form and could see his mop of thick black hair poking out of the blanket. His back was towards Jason. 

Jason gently put his hand on the blankets where Dick’s shoulder should be and shook lightly, 

“Hey, Dick?”

Placing his hands on the bed, Jason peeked over top and around so that he could see Dick’s face.

He nearly jumped out of his skin when he found himself looking into wide open blue eyes. 

“You’re not sleeping,” Jason choked out,

Dick shook his head ever so slightly. 

“Can I lie down beside you for a bit?”

Dick nodded ever so slightly. 

With Dick’s nod of consent, Jason vaulted over Dick’s body -with agility that was very surprising considering he was such a large framed and muscular man.

Jason lay face to face with Dick and gulped, suddenly at a loss for words. 

He might have been struck speechless when he realized he could make out the faint tear tracks on his brother’s cheeks. Or, it could have been the obvious swelling and painful looking bruising covering most of the right side of Dick’s face thanks to Jason’s gigantic fist. 

Jason brought his hand up to Dick’s face and moved to brush Dick’s hair out of the way, he stopped when Dick flinched slightly.

Jason felt his chest tighten in sadness. He didn’t want his brother to be afraid of him... regardless of how tough he tried to act. 

“Dickie...”

“M’sorry Jason”

“No, Dick. You got nothing to be sorry for, ok?”

“You got shot. It’s my fault. I let you down. Let the kids down.” Dick whispered despondently. 

“Dickiebird, look what’s done is done. I’m fine and the hostages were saved. Bruce just told us about your history with that shithole. I only wish I knew sooner what you had gone through, so I could have helped you.”

“I wish I was strong like you, Little Wing,” 

Dick murmured. Hugging something gray closer to his chest.

Jason looked down and he felt a tug at his heart strings when he saw his older brother clutching onto his ratty stuffed elephant. 

“Goldie, you are so strong. You’ve been doing this hero shit longer than any of us. You’ve helped us all more times than I can even remember. For fuck’s sake you helped me rejoin this family again. Not Bruce, or Alfred or the others, but you. You helped me when I was messed up, Dickie. 

So, when you’re not feeling strong, you have me or the other pains in the asses in this mansion to help you out. Just... just let us in sometimes, ya?”

“Thanks, Jay”, Dick winced when he tried to smile at his younger brother.

“Fuck, don’t thank me Dickie. You should be pissed at me for what I did to that perfect face of yours. I’m sorry by the way,”

Jason reached out and turned Dick’s head towards the light from the nightlight and remarked,

“Dick, man this looks bad,”

“Well, you throw a mean left hook, Jay,”

“You look like you’re in agony, did Alfred bring you some meds?”

Dick shrugged flippantly at Jason’s question.

That’s when Jason spied the tray on nightstand with the untouched pills and unused ice pack.

Jason sighed deeply and reached for the supplies,

“Dickie, haven’t you’ve suffered enough? Jeez, take these,”

Jason shoved the pills into Dick’s hand and helped him sit up while he took the painkillers. 

Laying Dick back down, Jason cracked the ice pack and activated it. He pressed it gently to Dick’s swollen face. 

“Thanks Jay, I love you,”

Jason snorted,

“Ya well, maybe hold off on that thought until you see your face in the mirror tomorrow,”

Jason threw his arm around his big brother’s smaller frame protectively and thanked his lucky stars that Dick had an overly forgiving heart of gold. 

Bruce walked in later that night to find his two eldest boys asleep in Dick’s bed. 

He lifted the used ice pack off of Dick’s face and grimaced at the darkening bruise that was sure to look much more gruesome in the coming days.

Bruce pulled up a chair and sat beside the bed falling asleep shortly after. 

Damian, Tim and Cass all entered Dick’s room at various points throughout the night and climbed up onto their brother’s bed.

And each time Dick found himself thrashing and startling himself awake due to an intrusive nightmare or bad memory, his family was there to rest a caring hand on him and to assure him that he was safe and loved.


End file.
